


The Way You See Her

by Ashkah



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, You don't see Adrien freaking out a lot about LB's identity, alya is an instigator, angst (just a little), nino is a doll, oblivious kids, so much sap you'll get a cavity eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 15:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashkah/pseuds/Ashkah
Summary: He'd expected it to be a mutual occurrence. That one day, they would go off after finishing off another random Akuma, and reveal themselves to each other and live happily ever after in their shared knowledge of each other under the masks. He had NOT been expecting this.But now he had to deal with it.It didn't help that Ladybug had no clue, and her kwami, Tikki, was demanding silence from him about the whole thing.





	The Way You See Her

**Author's Note:**

> This is me dipping my toe into the Miraculous Ladybug fandom to see how the water ripples. I've not posted anything in quite awhile and I've jumped fandoms in the past. Please have mercy on me?

Adrien stared absently at the ceiling of his bedroom, the events from earlier that evening playing in his mind over and over like an old movie reel on loop.

It hadn’t been his fault, really. In fact, he’d had no control over the situation at all. It happened so fast that he had no time to do anything but react, and letting her hit the roof had simply not been a viable option.

Had he had it all to do over again, he’d have paid more attention to her during battle. Caught the weariness in her face a lot sooner. Perhaps he could have forced the fight to end sooner, so she had time to make it home before the inevitable. But he’d been too busy trying to impress, and he’d missed the flushness of her face, the way her balance became unsteady as she moved.

They’d just finished dispatching the latest akuma, and Chat Noir had raised his fist for his and Ladybug’s customary celebration bump when he finally noticed her swaying on her feet.

‘My La-” 

Before he could get out his full question of concern, Ladybug collapsed, and he’d barely made it over to catch her in time, her body falling in a crumpled heap to the rooftop. At the same moment a bright pink light blinded him as Ladybug’s transformation forcibly broke, leaving a very much NOT Ladybug, lying unconscious in his arms.

“Ladybug!!” came the cry of their three companions as they landed in unison on the rooftop to help.

Chat froze in shock as his mind sluggishly processed the scene. The unmasked face of his Lady lay before him, unconscious. And not just any face either, but the face of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the sweetest and most popular girl in Adrian’s class at lycee, and someone whom he considered to be a part of the very small group of people he called friends.

He was unsure how long he stood crouched there with Marinette in his arms, trying to make sense of it all, before her labored breathing brought his mind back to reality and the realization that he needed to act.

“Is she going to be alright?” he asked to no one in particular. He dismissed the breaking of his voice at the end as part of the shock lingering. Queen Bee, Carapace, and Rena Rouge looked between each other, none of them knowing how to answer his question.

A little red bug-like creature drifted into his line of sight from the brunette’s purse, a half eaten cookie in one hand. It looked at it’s chosen with worry, then glided down to rest its other hand against her forehead.

“She’s with fever,” she replied. “We need to get her home quick.”

“Home. Right. Of course.” Why hadn’t he thought of that sooner? 

“I’ll take her, I know where to go.” Rena leaned down and reached for Marinette, but Chat pulled the girl back, closer into his embrace, a streak of possessiveness showing that caused the other superhero to hesitate. Ladybug’s kwami set herself onto his shoulder.

“No, Marinette is a friend. I’ve got it.” Chat stood, making sure to be careful with Marinette, so that he wouldn’t drop her. Rena made to protest as he sidestepped her in his determination, but when he made the first leap onto the adjacent building, she didn’t follow. Satisfied, he continued on to Marinette’s parent’s bakery without so much as a glance back at his fellow heroes.

When he arrived, he hesitated. Barging in on her bedroom balcony seemed wrong somehow. Sure, Chat had no qualms about it any other time, when it was just Marinette’s room and he’d been too caught up in his own issues to care one way or the other. But... but it wasn’t just Marinette’s room anymore. It was Ladybug’s room now, too. Moving around her bedroom uninvited just seemed so... it just didn’t seem right of him. He felt like he’d be intruding on her private place, and he’d done enough intruding for one evening as it was, intentional or not.

Having set his resolve, Chat jumped down to street level, and after devising a plausible excuse as to why he happened to be carrying their unconscious daughter around, entered the front door of the shop to deliver her to her parents.

Looking back on it now, Adrien could see where Marinette got her sweet nature from. Had the situation been any different, he might have even been amused at how much Tom and Sabine doted on his own welfare as well as their daughter’s.

He envied her that family connection, but was relieved as well to know she’d be taken care of. He would have liked to of stayed longer to make sure Marinette would be alright, but his ring had other plans, and he had to leave before his own miraculous powered down.

Now here he was, minutes before midnight, and he’d still not managed to make heads or tails of the revelation from earlier that evening. 

He groaned in frustration. How did he always manage to get himself into these messes?

“Look, kid, stressing about it isn’t going to do you or anyone else any good right now. Best just to get some rest and worry about what needs worrying about tomorrow.”

Adrien rolled onto his side, turning his back on the black cat demigod perched on his computer desk. Plagg had a point, of course, but still... “You just don’t understand, though. Ladybug is _Marinette_ ,” he whined.

“Yes,yes. And Marinette is Ladybug. You’ve done a wonderful job of reminding me of that _all night_ ,” came his kwami’s sarcastic reply. “Still don’t get why it has your britches in a twist. Besides, I distinctly remember you telling Tikki that you wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag until Ladybug was ready to know.”

That’s right, Ladybug’s kwami, Tikki, had begged him not to let on he knew anything as they made their way to the brunette’s house. She worried that Marinette wouldn’t take the news very well. She cared deeply for her chosen, he could tell. And because of that, he’d promised and reassured the little creature that he’d relay the message to Carapace the next chance he got. But he still couldn't help the small twinge of jealousy he got when Tikki had sheepishly confirmed that Rena Rouge and Queen Bee had already known Marinette’s secret.

He rolled back over to glance at Plagg out the corner of his eye. Too bad his kwami had turned out to be this little sarcastic shit. He could use an understanding mind every now and again.

“I know, I know.” And that was the problem, really. They were in the same class. She sat right behind him and he would be seeing her there tomorrow. He honestly didn’t know if he could make it through the day without slipping up and making some reference in front of her about her identity. He’d wanted to know for so long that now that he did, he wasn’t sure if he could hold his emotions in check, or even if he wanted to.

And to make things more complicated, she still didn’t know Chat’s identity, which would then leave him to have to explain how he figured it out. He’d suggested making things even by telling Marinette his identity, but Tikki had been adamantly against it. She’d mumbled something about brains breaking, but he’d not really heard or understood what she meant by that and had let it go.

Adrien sighed in defeat. Plagg was right.  He needed to stop worrying if he intended to face any of this head on tomorrow. That was something he did know, at least.

“Sleep it off, kid.” Plagg insisted. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”

If Adrien were a betting man, he’d be willing to bet against that statement, but it didn’t hurt to at least give it a try. Tucking himself in, he muttered a muted ‘good night’ to his kwami and shut his eyes, willing himself to rest. 

Tomorrow wouldn’t care either which way.

 

*-*-*-*

As it so happened, Marinette stayed home from school. 

Adrien, for his part, couldn’t tell if he felt more relieved or worried over that fact. On the one hand, it meant that whatever disaster he’d thought today would bring, would be postponed until a later period, giving him more time to mull over everything.

Or more time to dig himself into a deeper hole. That too.

On the other, it also meant that she hadn’t fully recovered from the fever. Tikki had assured him that all Marinette needed was rest, that she’d feel better after a good night’s sleep. He didn’t know whether she had meant that sincerely, or had just said it in an attempt at calming him down. Either way, one night of sleep apparently had not been enough.

When the lunch bell rang, it took Alya snapping her fingers in front of his face to pull his attention away from his inner thoughts. “Yo, Earth to Agreste. You coming or what?”

Adrien looked up in confusion. He knew his two friends had been discussing something in between classes, but he hadn’t bothered listening in. Perhaps he should have? “Coming where?”

The redhead let out a huff of annoyance. “Across the street to the bakery, of course. Didn’t you hear Nino and I talking about the text Marinette sent me earlier saying she wasn’t feeling well? I want to check up on my girl!”

Ah, so that had been what the two were talking about earlier. And of course they’d want to go see how she was. That’s what friends did. But he did not trust himself to act normal around said girl at the moment, even with their two best friends as buffers. And since fate had given him an out by keeping her at home for the day...

“Actually,” he said while pretending to be interested in something across the room. “I planned on doing some research for my literature term paper during lunch today. You’ll have to go without me.” He turned back and gave them a small smile. “Sorry guys. Tell her hey for me and that I hope she gets better soon.”

Alya was apparently too anxious to get out the door to go see her best friend, so she shrugged off his excuse and picked up her backpack. “Your loss, Adrien. You know Mari’s parents make the best croissants in town.” Nino, though, stared at him just a bit longer than comfortable, like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how. Impatient, Alya grabbed her boyfriend by the collar and started dragging him out the classroom. “Come on, we’re wasting time.”

Outnumbered, Nino gave up and turned around to follow Alya down the hall. 

Adrien stared back at them with regret.

At the end of lunch, Adrien returned to find that the couple had beaten him back to the classroom. Nino sat with his head resting on the desk, while Alya sat behind him with barely restrained excitement radiating off her person. Eyeing her skeptically, he made his way over to the other side of his and Nino’s desk and set his stuff down. “How’d it go?”

Nino glanced up at his girlfriend before rolling his eyes and plopping his head back down. “Mari’s doing okay. She’ll be back to school tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’m glad.” Sitting down himself, he turned to look up at his other friend. The budding reporter looked like she was about to burst from whatever it was that had her so giddy. “Alya, are you okay?”

Nino groaned, hiding his head underneath his hands as if bracing for impact. Did he just ask the wrong question? As if on cue, Alya bounced out of her seat and halfway over her desk so she could talk to him without having to raise her voice. “So, it seems our little Mari has a secret admirer!”

Adrien blinked. A secret admirer?

Okay.

So, out of all the things he’d expected to hear from Alya, that had not been one of them. Of course, the idea shouldn’t surprise him. Any guy worth his salt wouldn’t think twice about falling for someone like Marinette. Sweet and caring at her core, with a spark of confidence and determination when necessary, with a side of sassy playfulness around those she felt comfortable calling friends...

Oh god... why hadn’t he figured it all out sooner? Marinette and Ladybug were exactly the same! The resemblance in their personalities was unmistakable now that he knew what to look for. He swallowed down the anxiety that threatened to take over. Now wasn’t the time.

Oh right. Alya looked like she expected a response to her statement. “An a- admirer?”

_Smooth Agreste. Real smooth._

He could feel Nino studying him from under his arms, but he paid it no mind. Alya had this look on her face that suggested she’d saved the best part for last. Adrien could almost imagine the kitsune ears and tail on her, twitching in mirth and mischief. It reminded him a bit of a certain fox-eared heroine friend of his. “Ho ho~... And you’ll never guess who it is.”

“W-who?” A small ball of jealousy gathered at the pit of his stomach. Unwarranted, but there. Admirers weren’t so much a big deal. As a model, he had hundreds of them, both secret and not so secret. It didn’t actually mean anything. And besides, whoever it was couldn’t possibly have an advantage over him anyway. After all, he was-

“Fucking CHAT NOIR, that’s who!”

One second.

Two.

“HUH?!?” 

The outburst startled a few students who were still returning to their seats from recess.It apparently had been the intended response, however, as Alya grinned back at him with satisfaction. “I know, right? Our little Kitty’s been busy!”

The blonde was at a loss for words. He knew he needed to say something though. His silence on the matter after that kind of reaction would just raise more questions that did not need to be asked. And while Alya’s accusations were technically true, he wanted to know how the hell she managed to justify them. In a way that didn’t imply anything on his part, of course.

“Why do you say that?” Good. Safe. Smart.

Alya adjusted herself so that she sat on top her and Marinette’s desk, facing Adrien. “So, Mari is out sick today because apparently she collapsed with fever yesterday while running some errands for her parents. Mari said she ended up in the vicinity of the akuma attack and hid out until it was over. She was on her way back home when she became dizzy and blacked out. Next thing she remembers, she wakes up in her bed later in the evening. According to her mom, Chat Noir found her passed out and brought her home himself!”

Adrien knit his brows in confusion. That’s it? That’s all she had to backup her claim? “How does that-?”

“Don’t you see,” she interrupted him. “How else did he know where to take her, unless he’d been to her house before? Also, why did he bother to take her home? Wouldn’t a hospital or having someone call for an ambulance been more appropriate?”

He mentally flinched at Alya’s barrage of questions. She did have a point, sort of. She looked so satisfied with herself for coming up with all this on her own, too. He hated that he had to knock her down a couple pegs, but if something wasn’t said, then she’d be low key planning Marinette’s wedding here pretty soon. To Chat Noir. Which was him...

Oh boy...

Adrien bit back a blush as the image of Mari in a wedding dress came unbidden to his mind at the thought. A soft chuckle came from inside his shirt pocket, and he pretended to straighten his clothing in an attempt to muffle the noise and give a warning to Plagg to knock it off. The irony that they were all discussing his love life right now, one unknowingly, didn’t escape him.

“Don’t you think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself, love.” Nino’s voice of reason floated between them, breaking the intensity of the moment and pulling Alya’s attention away from Adrien. He heaved a sigh of relief.

He watched Nino stretch and lean back into his side of their bench. “Considering she just fainted from exhaustion, taking her to emergency would have been a bit much, and brought on some unwanted attention to Chat. And there are several ways he could have known where Mari lived that don’t involve cat stalking or late night rendezvous on her balcony.”

Alya glared at her boyfriend in annoyance. “Name one.”

“Easy,” he answered, resting his elbows on the back of the bench. “Ladybug. We already know that Mari’s managed to talk her into doing favors for you and the Ladyblog in the past. It isn’t a far stretch the assume that Ladybug might know where she lived. She probably just told Chat Noir where to go.”

Alya visibly deflated. Adrien cheered. Nino for the save. He made a mental note to find a way to thank Nino later for pulling the situation back from the dredges of no return. Maybe buy him a couple cds or something as a friend.

The red-head shoved Nino in the back of the shoulder. “Way to ruin my moment, Nino.” The boy just waved it off like it was a normal occurrence. Knowing those two, it probably was. “Still,” she added as she slipped off her desk and back into her seat, “I’m not ruling anything out yet until I get another chance to talk to Marinette. I plan on going back over after school. You guys want to come with?”

“Nah,” Nino answered before Adrien had a chance to. “I’m done being the third wheel to you and Marinette’s girl time for the day. You can go on without me. Besides, Adrien and I already had plans to hang out after class anyway.”

They did? Since when?

Adrien gave his best friend a quizzical look, but the boy had his eyes closed and didn’t see the unasked question. Before anything else could be said on the matter, the bell rang and Mademoiselle Bustier walked in to start the second half of class.

*-*-*-*

Nino’s staring made Adrien fidget uncomfortably in his chair. 

At the end of school, he’s barely had time to wave goodbye to Alya, who’d darted off in the direction of Marinette’s bakery, before Nino had snagged his backpack and started pulling him toward his family’s townhouse. After grabbing sodas out of the fridge (his diet be damned), they made their way to Nino’s bedroom where he took a seat in Nino’s desk chair while Nino crashed onto his bed.

That’s when the staring started. Nino hadn’t even uttered a word, just settled himself cross-legged at the head of his bed and stared. Adrien, for his part, did his best to pretend he didn’t notice, looking everywhere else but back at his best friend.

Finally, Nino sighed and cracked the top to his drink. “Come on, bro. You’ve been acting weird all damn day, man, even for you. Spill it already. Your skittishness has been annoying the hell out of me.”

He spared a glance over at his friend. Nino had relaxed into his headboard, the interrogating look in his eyes turning into one of concern. He released the tension building between his shoulder blades, resting his elbows on his legs for support. “That obvious, huh?”

Nino snorted into his can. “Obvious, he asks,” talking more to himself. More seriously he asked, “Did something happen between you and your dad again?”

Adrien let out a short laugh. If only. Unlike his 15 year old self, he’d come to learn how to ride out his father’s usual bouts of stubbornness when it came to his well being. He came to find out that his father appreciated a well thought out debate when it came to his demands. All he had to do was present a decent argument, and the fashion mogul would generally slacken the leash a little bit. He and Gabriel hadn’t had a real fight in quite some time. “Surprisingly no. My Dad’s pretty chill right now, you know, for being my Dad and all. He even cut back to only scheduling shoots for me on weekends. Said he wanted me to have enough time to study for finals coming up next month and whatnot. You know, the Agreste reputation and all that.”

Nino made a face that told Adrien exactly what he thought of his dad’s idea of the ‘Agreste Reputation’. “So if your Dad isn’t the problem, what is?”

He couldn’t help the slide of his eyes as he attempted to latch his attention onto something other than his friend sitting on the bed in front of him. They came to rest on the Jagged Stone poster pinned to Nino’s wall. A larger print of the album cover that Marinette had designed for the rock star a few years ago. She’d even been gracious enough to sign it for Nino, her uniform signature blending perfectly with the artwork on the bottom right corner. Adrien had an actual album cover sitting at home with the same signature on it.

Plagg took that moment to relieve himself from Adrien’s shirt and go join a green turtle-like kwami sitting on the nightstand next to Nino’s bed sipping from a small teacup that used to belong to one of Nino’s sister’s toy tea sets. Wayzz waved in greeting as the kwami of misfortune sat down next to him, a piece of camembert already halfway inside his mouth. “He’s been like this since last night,” Plagg muttered between chewing. 

Nino sighed. “I figured this had something to do with yesterday, seeing how you jumped at the excuse to avoid going over to Marinette’s earlier.”

The blonde felt the need to defend himself. “Hey! It wasn’t an excuse!”

It totally had been.

“Don’t even try, man. You’re a horrible liar, by the way. I ever tell you that? I mean seriously dude, if you like being rich, don’t ever take up poker, you won’t stay rich for long.”

“Ninoooo~!”

Nino hummed as he sobered over his teasing. “So what’s the big deal? It’s just Marinette.”

Adrien gave his friend a skeptical look. “It doesn’t surprise you any to find out that Marinette is Ladybug?”

Nino just looked at him, eyes narrowed, as if contemplating something. Adrien could almost hear the gears in his friend’s head turning. Finally, Nino set his drink down and brought his hand up to rub at his temple. “Surprise me? No, not really. Kind of made perfect sense once I thought about it a little. I think the real question is how do you feel about it?”

Adrien took a heavy breath before resting his chin on his palm in defeat. “I’m not sure? I mean, it’s _Marinette_ , you know?”

“No, bro, I don’t know,” Nino deadpanned.

The model ignored him. “She’s smart, creative, the kindest person I know. Almost everyone likes her. She’s such a great friend. I can definitely see why she was chosen to be LB.”

“But?”

Adrien groaned in frustration. Because there was a ‘but’. He just didn’t have a clue what it was.

A sigh of disgust came from the nightstand next to the bed. “Ah jeez, there he goes again with the overreacting. Humans, I swear. Always letting emotions complicate things that don’t need it.”

A second later, the little cat-like creature had to sway to avoid being hit by an empty soda can that had been tossed in his direction. “You’re not helping, Plagg!”

Wayzz set his teacup down and floated over to hover in front of the brooding teen. “You’re still in shock it seems like. Perhaps you just need more time for all of this to sink in. The two of you have been partners for quite a long time without knowing the identity of the other. I can’t imagine finding out in the way you did was particularly easy to digest.”

NIno gestured toward his kwami. “I’d listen to the flying turtle, man.”

Adrien groaned and pushed himself up from his chair, starting a pace at the end of his friend’s bed to try and alleviate some of the anxious energy that had started to build from sitting still. “That’s just it. You said yourself she will be back in class tomorrow. I don’t have anymore time.” He made a few circuits of Nino’s bedroom before stopping and turning back to his friend. “And the worst part is we can’t say anything to her. Tikki doesn’t want her to know yet.”

The budding DJ crushed his soda can in hand before tossing it and landing it perfectly into the waste bin across the room. “Well that explains why Mari wholeheartedly believed that you’d found her already passed out as herself on some random street. She didn’t seem to remember much at all about yesterday after leaving school.”

Adrien sheepishly rubbed the back of his blond head. “I had to come up with something to explain the situation to her parents without giving away her identity.”

Nino nodded, “And apparently her kwami ran with it.”

Wayzz returned to his spot next to the black cat kwami and his awaiting teacup. “Tikki has always been very empathetic towards her charges. She will not hesitate to do what she thinks is best for the wellbeing of her bugs. If she feels that Ladybug is not ready to handle the idea of her identity being compromised, then it does not surprise me any that she would issue a gag order, if you will.” 

“If you ask me, it can make her somewhat of a pain in the ass,” said Plagg through another mouthful of cheese. He swallowed. “But that is our Tikki for you. It’s why I kept my mouth shut all this time. Had I had it my way, you would have known a long time ago.”

“You knew?” Nino cut in, astonished. Adrien supposed it had never occurred to the moroccan that the kwamis may have already known of the identities of all the heroes long before now.

“Of course I did,” answered Plagg, not missing a beat. “Wayzz did too. But, as Tikki insisted, it wasn’t our secret to tell. And let me tell you, kid,” the kwami added, turning his attention back to his charge, “I’m very impressed with your restraint. Not one question about how Ladybug seemed underneath the mask. I admit I expected it as early as the next day, but alas, it did not happen. I still mourn the loss of an opportunity for cheese bribery. Every time you kept referring to pigtails as ‘just a friend’,” and he emphasized that phrase with air quotations and all, “I wanted to rip my whiskers off.”

“She trusted me not to look,” insisted the model. “How could I betray that trust, even after the fact, by asking questions about who she was? I was willing to wait until she felt comfortable with the idea of sharing.”

“Dude, wow.”

Adrien gave his friend a questioning look. “What?”

Nino shrugged. “Nothing. It’s just that, I knew you crushed on LB, but I didn’t realize you were that much in love with her.”

A heartbeat passed. Then a second.

Adrien’s eyes grew to the size of saucers and a keening wail escaped his lips as he dropped down to the ground to assume the fetal position. This was not happening! He could hear Plagg’s cackling from the kwami’s place on the nightstand. “Ha! I wondered when that point would come up!”

The blond slumped defeatedly in his spot, whimpering. “Oh my god, I am so screwed, aren’t I?”

Nino sighed from his seat on the bed. “Well, I guess that all depends on whether knowing that Ladybug is Mari changes the way you see her.”

“The way I see Ladybug?” Adrien asked weakly.

“Or the way you see Marinette.”

He stayed silent for a long moment as he contemplated those statements. He honestly didn't know if knowing changed anything. It shouldn’t, he mused. But did it? And for which side? Slowly, he straightened himself into a normal sitting position, but continued the stare at the floor lost in thought.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he looked back up at Nino, who, for his part, had remained silent and patient throughout. “Hey, thanks for having me over, but I think I need some fresh air right about now.”

“Anytime, bro,” he friend replied, grabbing his school bag and pulling out his homework. “Door or window?” he added as an afterthought.

“Definitely window,” Adrien answered immediately. “Plagg, transform me!”

He let the magic of his ring wash over him as it sucked in his kwami companion. He felt instantly more at ease once it finished. Being Chat always gave him a sense of relief during times where he felt unsure or down. He flexed his clawed hand, relishing in the feel of the magic leather against his skin. He hoped that running across the rooftops of Paris would help him think more clearly.

Chat was halfway out the window when he heard Nino call out to him. “See you at school tomorrow.” He waved distractedly in reply without looking back, already eager to feel the wind through his hair as he made his way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are welcome. Feel free to visit me at my tumblr page as well: ashkahchan.tumblr.com
> 
> Seriously, tell me how I am doing.


End file.
